We were in one of the most beautiful parts of New Zealand, the Coromandel Peninsula, so it was going to be hard to go wrong. But still, none of us had ever been to Lonely Bay before, so we weren’t sure if it was going to be a perfect strip of sand on which to spend our last night of the year, or a beach filled with sharp pebbles, sand-flies and rowdy kids drinking a little too much.

As soon as we arrived, we knew it was going to be just what we hoped.

Tucked away down a short gravel road, another ten minutes walk downhill through the native bush, we popped out onto a quiet curve of sand between soft rolling waves and a lush bank of Pohutukawa trees.

We made our home for the night beside a beautiful old, twisted Pohutukawa that had been enjoying its position on the beachfront for decades.

As twilight faded to darkness we sat in front of our tent. Chatting under flickering lamp light, sipping our drinks and letting ourselves feel the year end, turning from 2016 to 2017.

At some point in the night we slipped inside our tent and into our beds right there on the beach, and slept (very, very well).

The next morning we woke up to an unbelievable sunrise, a glassy-still ocean, a native New Zealand Dotterill bird investigating our tent (which we had kept well outside it’s marked nesting area) and an army of swaying Pahutakawa leaves.

It’s was nothing short of the perfect way to start a new year!